It's Liverpuddle at Anfield. They ALWAYS get the rub of the green. Home field advantage.

And yet that doesn't appear to work for us?

Konate taken off at half time - if ever there is an admission that a player is lucky to still be on the pitch it is the immediate early substitution from the manager. Mac Allister and Bradley have both had this treatment in recent weeks as well.

That is a 100% dive from Jota - Var has to chalk this off. Any contact is absolutely miniscule and if there is it is Jota initiating it.

Carragher on comms immediately says there is contact so there is a pen - then when he knows its going to var he changes his tune and says there isnt really any contact

Ref overturns his decision - so where is the yellow card for the dive? that is Dias and Jota both diving but no yellow. Grow a pair ref.

Wolves have had 2 players booked for complaining about the lack of yellow cards to Liverpool players

Obi-Martin on the bench for Man U today

Cunha 2-1 - Wolves deserve it. Cunha is definitely a player we should look at the release clause in the summer. Just technically a really good footballer and not afraid to take a risk and shoot with quality - we need more of that

Wolves have had 7 shots to Liverpool's zero this half.

Still expect Liverpool to win BUT, marginal decisions, a nudge before Liverpool's penalty, a possible second yellow for Kontate - now Liverpool would say both would have been harsh but they are decisions we've been on the wrong end of this season and have cost us points

Cunha would add so much for us, a maverick player. Sometimes it seems Arteta is too overly concerned with control and dominance that there seems little room for the unexpected or risk. But when you are such a dominant team, particularly when other teams settle in to a low block so let you be dominant there is the need for a spark.

The only 'issue' is where he would play, he can play in any of the front 3 positions. I'd play him off the left adding some creativity to that side and better balance to the team.

So funny to hear Carragher on commentary with Liverpool nerves on the line. He's talking about this being about fatigue rather than mentality. He's so quick to call in to question the mentality of other teams.

It won't happen but this 'fan tv' level of commentary needs to be stopped on Sky games

Liverpool win as expected. Over the course of the game Wolves were the better team. There are chinks there - if Liverpool play like this v Villa, City and Newcastle in their next 3 games then they will drop points in all 3. We need them to drop points in at least 2 of them I think

It does. It works for most teams and all the big teams. https://soofootball.com/home-advantage-in-football/ It is a well studied phenomenon.

This Liverpool side is very lucky. Those decisions were again very fortunate today.

There's no way they'd be above us with equivalent refereeing. Konate gets sent off every time in an Arsenal shirt.

The media luvvies are pathetic too. Carragher is such a pathetic weasel. Mentality my arse. Outplayed by Wolves. That was luck and not mentaliity.

Most of that article is simply saying home team win more matches, the only ‘evidence’ given that home teams (all home teams?) get favourable ref decisions is 55% of all penalties given to home teams and 52% of red cards are given to away teams. Hardly groundbreaking considering….home teams win more matches
Home bias certainly didn’t come in to play when Rice was sent off earlier this season, or when the ref could have sent off Van Dijk, given Martinelli a penalty or allowed Jesus late winner. Or when Moscera could have been red carded for the chokehold on Havertz
I’m just trying to think what favourable game changing ‘home decision’ we’ve had in the league this season…..I think the best anyone can come up with is a corner that should have been a goal kick v spurs. I’d be quite happy if that was the limit of decisions that went against us in our remaining away games this season

Carragher was so quiet in the final 10 minutes. He’s a fan commentating on his team. A ridiculously biased fan (more so than Neville who is agenda driven)
Notice also the cosy interview between Carragher and Slot before the game where Slot can give a carefully scripted apology for his behaviour towards the ref and his subsequent red cards, plus his assistants ref and his players red - they collectively lost their cool and in the wake of the absolute pile on to MLS and Arteta and Arsenal fans in the wake of the terrible Michel Oliver call were still waiting for a similar reaction to Slot’s behaviour.
Influential media people with a big platform drive what is newsworthy in football, it creates a narrative and sticks in people’s mind as being correct and that includes officials

100%. What Slot did was way way worse than anything Arteta has ever done. Note the way the media have not tried to blame Slot for the breakdown of world order.

City with a good win ahead of the game v Liverpool next weekend. Shame they have the small matter of a midweek game v Real Madrid! I think I want City to knock Real Madrid out - 2 reasons, 1 it will give them huge belief before the Liverpool game and 2 if we met either in the CL I think we fare better v City.

I agree with you on this.

The Liverpool diving was embarrassing yesterday. The media are so silent on it too. Jota's was awful. Diaz was never enough for a penalty either.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/ar ... 0lk0pxrr8o

According to this Newcastle have set Isak's price tag at £83m. I don't believe either bits of that, a) that Newcastle have set a price tag and b) that it would be as low as £83m

It will certainly help if Newcastle don't make the CL this season and there looks like there could be a hell of a battle for the top 5 places

I think Diaz one was a penalty, he made sure there was contact but there was more than enough from the GK that it would always be given. There was a slight nudge on the defender before which would have been soft but if it was given on the pitch VAR couldn't have overturned it.

I think football has a bigger problem with penalties where an incident like that which is a 51/49 tackle gets punted out for a goal kick by Diaz and its rewarded with an 80% chance of scoring. It often feels like the punishment far outweighs the crime.

I don't really know how you fix it, some people talk about free kicks in the box, but how do you judge which are free kicks and which are penalties. A drastic option would be to make the penalty area smaller, yes it reduces the size of space the GK can handle but they are all very good with their feet now - it is rare to see a gk catch or save the ball right at the extremes of the box. Any foul in the 3 yard extreme edge of the box shouldn't be rewarded with an 80% chance of a goal one of the lowest scoring sports.

There is a very remote chance that England could have 7 teams in the CL next year.
The top 5 as long as the england co-efficient stays strong - looks very likely
Then Spurs or Man U win the Europa - they are the two clear favourites (shows how awful that competition is especially without cL clubs dropping down)
And Villa win the CL but finish 6th or worse - this one is a tad more unlikely.

Could easily be 6 teams though

Its incredible that the big Arsenal Women's team gams is getting all but a sell out at the Emirates. I'm not aware of the price of those tickets, assuming they are some way less than the men's game but they had £56k in for the 5-0 thrashing of Spurs this weekend. I think only 1 game in England (men's or women's) had a higher attendance (spurs v Man U).....we had more than Liverpool at Anfield, more than City at the Etihad! - their stadiums would have allowed a higher attendance than we got for the woman's game if they'd filled it.

Arsenal are right to put a lot of effort and time in building the women's team as it is bringing a new demographic in to football and Arsenal, girls, families and youngsters.....and these 'new' fans will boost the club as a whole.

It’s great news. I wonder if the increased revenues from match days will allow Mikel Arteta to invest heavily in a new striker. That would be great news and a real boost.

https://x.com/FootballTalkHQ/status/1891468962925330863

Cunha's goal - watch Van Dijk turn his back and dangle a leg, completely bought the dummy. Now, clearly Van Dijk has been one of the best CB in this league for the last 5 years but he shouldn't be immune from criticism when he's been poor. A CB such as Colwill would get hammered for doing this. I have a dislike how so many players are completely protected and never scrutinised for their mistakes or ill discipline simply because of how good they are

VVD got slated two years back when he went through a rough patch. The papers the next after we beat them at home were saying he was finished. He is still one of the best CBs in the league.

So America has gone absolutely batshit mental. Thank the lord we have Bill Burr to bring us back to normality

https://youtu.be/xg2iPL8ZTo0?si=DlYMREb6jsr_doXc

I must have missed all of these articles giving Van Dijk hell a few years back, would love to see them....? I've seen articles where Van Dijk has admitted a mistake for one of our goals - or admitting he wasn't up to scratch himself in some games but certainly not criticism from the media.

It isn't just Van Dijk, the media decide who their favourites are, or who the enemy is, and its difficult or them to move away from that position. Grealish, Palmer and Foden are great examples of this. Grealish didn't score in a calendar year, barely a peep compared to the stick Rashford takes. Foden has gone missing for maybe 6 of the 7 months played this season - his team have faced real form problems and he hasn't stepped up for them. Palmer, great talent, but his record in big games is awful and doesn't get called out - yes he scores lots of penalties (and is good wat them) but he stands out in a pretty average chelsea side. It is far too soon for the level of adulation he gets in this league.
Harry Kane was unbelievably protected by the media in this country, yes the odd poking fun at no trophies but never called out his dangerous play.

Big money flops get called out in this country and Pépé is often put in there, clearly he didn't achieve what he should have given his price tag but his goals and assist record compared to most of these big money flops should not have him anywhere near the same conversation. Pépé has a better record than Grealish for example.

Arsenal have been fined £65,000 by the independent regulatory commission after they 'failed to ensure their players did not behave in an improper way' towards Michael Oliver after Myles Lewis-Skelly was sent off at Wolves.

"The Commission noted that football matches are invariably peppered with controversial refereeing decisions and it is incumbent upon football clubs to make sure that their players accept those decisions even when their players vehemently believe that a mistake has been made by the Referee.”

Full FA reasoning for the fine - where they get Myles' name wrong.

No problem with the fine or the reason - lets see this for every single team and every single incident of crowding a ref and arguing his decision. I can find plenty of examples where this has not been a problem.

I think if the red wasn't overturned there wouldn't have been a fine

But the referee at the time only saw fit to book one player (Jurien Timber) for the entire incident. And not just any referee either, but the fragrant Michael Oliver, who is, as we all know, one of the very finest officials the entire North of the country (plus Australia) has to offer.

Are we now to find that clubs will be charged with failure to control their players every time a single yellow card is shown? Will the yellow card itself be updated to include an invoice for £65,000 payable to the FA?

Or are the FA themselves suggesting that Michael Oliver was mistaken in only issuing a single yellow card for the incident, and that they disagree with their own official about the gravity of what happened.

Surely it is incumbent upon football associations to make sure that they accept the decisions of their referees, no matter how ridiculous they may appear to any sighted person with a passing acquaintance with the game.

We have been told many times that the referee must not be undermined. For to even begin to question the sanctity, integrity and competence of the North's (and Australia's) finest referees would be to step onto a very slippery slope indeed and who knows where that may lead.

Possibly to an improvement in refereeing standards in this country, and we can't have that can we?

Well said, Vinnie

Your last point is spot on. The tail is wagging the dog.

And how embarrassingly unprofessional to get his name wrong when they are trying to save face. Are they using the Var officials as sub-editors?

They are banning children's books (like this one about a girl coming to terms with having freckles because it is “potentially related to gender ideology or discriminatory equity ideology topics” ) ... but its the Europeans who don't respect freedom of speech because they bar Nazis.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/ ... nistration

Accusation in a mirror; straight out of Goebbels' playbook.

Whether it's deliberate by those doing it (i.e. Musk and Trump), there's certainly someone feeding them the ideas.

If we get 2nd place (or better) based on what we have now (and leaving aside all the arguments about what got us here in the first place), it will rank as a fantastic achievement in my book.

I certainly get the feeling that this is a team in the true sense; fighting for each other, willing each other on, demanding more of each other, and delighted for each other as appropriate.

Don't think Arteta and the staff get enough credit for this.

Trump insisted that Obama was born in Africa and now has a guy literally born in Africa running everything.



Those tweets were 20 minutes apart.

I don’t think you have to look to far to see who they are being influenced by

https://economymiddleeast.com/news/elon ... ooks-like/

Imagine Musk attending these talks and being arrested and thrown in a Saudi jail for drug misuse.

Now that would be funny, if he wasn't such a malign influence on the world.

I think the fact that Musk is white and Obama isn't trumps (no pun intended) place of birth.

Treating boers as a persecuted group, and unconditional support of Israel, are part of the same playbook.

We have whites, some of whom can walk without using their knuckles, protesting with 'make South Africa great again' placards. Black people know exactly what they mean and don't like it one bit.

But of course Trump isn't a racist because he plays golf with Tiger and has many black friends!

What's wrong with the right side of Trumps face in that picture? Is there a teenage girl in the room that he's leering at or is he having a stroke?

The fact that we are holding russia and Saudi Arabia as beacons of leadership is enough to make one weep.

I was just reading an article about Russia. You can't do anything there without bribing the 'competent leadership' plus all the local mafia bosses.